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As smartphones and social media became popular, notification badges to show you new messages became a de facto standard. In Windows 7, Microsoft added overlays for the taskbar so apps could convey anything with a smaller icon over the application's icon.

That overlay could show for example, unread message count for IM and email apps, or play/paused status for media players and similar such notifications for websites pinned to the taskbar using IE. With Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the same will be possible for Universal Apps.

According to her, along with a number of other changes Microsoft has made in Anniversary Update, the taskbar will get notification badges for Universal Windows Platform apps so apps like Facebook, Twitter etc can show updates too like Desktop apps:

In addition to the Card UI and toast notifications in Action Center, this will be an additional way to catch the user's attention. Developers should expect the tools required to show notification badges in the near future as Anniversary Update is released.

So, now there are numerous ways to show notifications in Windows - via Live Tiles in the Start Menu, the taskbar notification (tray) area, Action Center toasts and widgets/cards and flashing taskbar buttons and overlays.

The Anniversary Update is expected to be released in July 2016. Those who are participating in the Windows Insider program and using Fast Ring builds should get the notification feature a bit earlier.

Users who are using Universal Apps will welcome this change. What about you? Are you looking forward to this feature?

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.